Remember When?

I just had a flashback today. Kelsee has been impatiently waiting her turn to be a lunch worker. That is one of the perks of being a forth grader. She came home from school with a little glow about her, so excited that it was finally her turn to help this week. She then gave me the play by play on how it all went down...she had to put a hair net on (boys got paper hats) and big plastic gloves and then they got to put on plastic aprons which she informed me "we throw away and get a new one the next day". She then told me with some disappointment that she handed out the cartons of milk today and "most everybody asked for chocolate, but every once and a while a first grader would ask for white and I would put down the chocolate and grab them a white one." I could instantly picture myself in grade school in my plastic apron and hair net and how excited I was to be a lunch worker.
She has told absolutely everyone she's seen today about her most important job. She is so hopeful that she will get to use a scoop and serve food tomorrow. We are crossing our fingers for her that it works out and she doesn't end up on dish duty. Who knew it was so cool to hang out with the lunch ladies?

It's the big 3 (times 2)!

Well, we rushed out of one holiday and right into the next. Aidan and Olivia turned 3!!! They were so excited for this birthday. They are starting to get what it means and that they get presents and cake. It was all pretty low-key, but they're not old enough to know the difference yet. We just had a few people over for dinner, opened presents, and had cake and ice cream. They were so excited about their cakes, I think it was their favorite part. I did a guitar for Aidan because he is so into them right now. He will even play his "air guitar". And I did a purse for Olivia because she has to carry one with her everywhere we go. I think I need to come up with a cake that works for both of them next year. I love coming up with the ideas and creating them, but this was a little time consuming!
This year was the most challenging and yet the funnest year with them yet. They learned how to tag team in order to create more mischief. I am running morning til night cleaning one disaster after another. They have learned how to blame each other. They have learned to run in different directions so I sometimes have to choose which one to run after. And they have decided they don't require as much sleep as they used to. But they are each others best friend and will take down anyone who tries to mess with the other one. They are talking non-stop and are say the funninest things (appropriate or not). And they make me happy I'm their mom everyday!
We can't wait for what's next....hopefully Aidan being potty-trained. According to him big boys do wear diapers and there is nothing wrong with that.

Rock Bottom baby

I got the funniest call from Al the other day. It's no secret he has a really crappy job right now and he is doing his best to be happy about having it. He gets to do fun things like scrape slime off produce rack at the grocery store, fix the handicap carts, and any other maintainance work at the stores around town. So he was at Lowes standing over a super smelly trash compactor trying to fix it when he looked down and spotted what he calls "a gold mine". He called me and said, "you know you've hit rock bottom when you jump into a trash compactor to fish out hundreds of little knobs that the hardware store is throwing away." One of the guys he works with walked past, saw him in there and yelled at him to get out, but Al convinced him to help him haul them to his truck for a cut of the profits. Anyway, we now have a huge tub in the garage that he is sure is worth a pretty penny.... All I'm saying is don't be surprised when you see a listing on KSL for cabinet knobs. I love my sweet husband for all his hard work and enduring this crappy job so I can stay home with our little monkeys.

GO RCC!!!

Kelsee made the competition cheer team at Raglan Coast Cheer this spring. She has the best cheer coaches! It is a husband wife team that are the coaches for the Dixie State cheer team and have now opened up their own gym. There are 3 teams at this gym and each one has about 25 girls on it. Kels is on the youngest team and loving it.

They have had a few performances at Dixie football halftime and a couple of high school games, but this last weekend she had her first competition up in Salt Lake at Alta High School (mine and Al's old stomping ground). I have to say I had no idea how serious this all was. There was a panel of judges, a crew of spotters, and a herd of girls in sparkly costumes and tons of glitter make-up. I couldn't hear anything because the music was so loud, but it was so fun to watch her. There was a huge storm that morning which meant a lot of our family traveling to see her missed it because of the roads, but she did great! And according to her she smiled and looked at the judges the whole time because that is what they get deducted for.

Her team took 2nd place!!! Way to go Kelsee! Next stop...Vegas next month, a couple more up north and onto Disneyland in the Spring.

Mommy I want an i-pod for christmas

Who' s 2 year old asks for an i-pod for Christmas? Apparently mine does. We were walking through Costco the other day and Olivia looked at me and said, "Mom, I want Santa to bring me an i-pod for Christmas, a pink one." I thought there was no possible way she knew what she was asking for so I said, "What do you do with an i-pod Liv?" She looked at me and rolled her eyes and said, "you put it in your ear an lissen moosic mom". She had been previously asking for Santa to bring her a battery powered car for Christmas and I was hoping she would come up with something else she wanted instead of that, I was just surprised that it was an electronic. I was bucking for a new doll or something. So I said Olivia if Santa brings you an i-pod he will not bring you a car too (thinking that would deter her) she said, "ok mom, I don't want the car. I want an i-pod". At this point I had to flat out tell her that Santa does not bring i-pods to 2 year olds and she asks, "why not?" What is the appropriate response to that?

Kelsee was in a panic when she heard this. She was trying to explain to Olivia that we have already sat on Santa's lap and asked for a car and we mailed him a letter that said you wanted a car and you can't change your mind. So as it turns out we are back to asking for a car (which again I didn't really think she knew what she was asking for, but she said "the kind you push the pedal and drive outside". What happened to the baby doll?

Catch Up

Ok, I know it's been a long time since I have posted anything and I have heard about it from all of you, so now it is time to play a little catch up of fall events even though it is December. No worries though, I am behind in my Christmas efforts as well. Much to Kelsee's dismay we have no tree, no decorations, no lights, and no gifts. We do however have plenty of choir practice, cheer practice, homework, cleaning, and running errands. I don't think I do much of anything else right now. So I think because it takes me so long to make a post for some reason and because I swore I would not have a blog that was nothing but posting pictures of my kids and telling how cute they were I haven't had much to say. But the fact is that is all I have going on right now so that is what you get. So here is a run down of a few highlights of the season:



Aidan was deathly afraid of masks this year and would scream like a girl if one like this was even in sight. Livy however thinks it's funny to tease him with them. My brother Jeff thought it would be funny to scare him. He was horrified at first, but much to my surprise he not only warmed up to this one but after a while he actually touched it and then even put it on. That did the trick. Suddenly he was a superhero and we couldn't get him to take it off the rest of the afternoon.

Livy loves her Baco (my mom, named by Kelsee when she was one). She is always asking when we can go see her or when she is coming to see us. We took a trip up to Salt Lake for fall break and spent a couple of days. I always have grand expectations of accomplishing so much, but the time flies and we barely have time to get the necessities in like eating at some of our favorite places. It's never a trip home without a Mimi's bran muffin and a stop at Paradise Bakery!

Kelsee spent the afternoon raking leaves into a pile and then doing a running jump into them. I think she realized on her first jump that leaves don't spring back like a trampoline when she landed like a rock on her butt. Don't worry that didn't deter her.

Although Aidan didn't like masks this year, he fell in love with the plastic vampire teeth (I refer to him as my mini Edward). He stood in front of the mirror day after day admiring himself and his new found smile.

They had so much fun creating their mini pumpkins Gram got them with the fun face parts that Baco sent them.

Kelsee was a pirate this year and you would think I would learn my lesson. I thought I was free and clear of sewing costumes this year. Cheryl and I went shopping earlier this fall and found parts and pieces to put together a pirate costume. In the end it didn't look like what I had envisioned in my head so I ended up making the whole thing. I know I can walk into any store and have my choice of 7 pirate costumes that are cheaper and way less time consuming, but for some reason I can't do it

Aidan and Olivia were supposed to be chickens. The costumes were so cute! It was the one Kelsee wore at this age with the big fluffy feather body and yellow rubber gloves for feet. I even had two because I borrowed one from Al's sister Emily since we both made one. We had a ward Halloween party and I tried to get the kids to put them on then. No exaggeration, Aidan cried for an hour and a half about not putting it on. I tried everything (I mean bribed him with everything) to put it on. I think he is more stubborn than me because after sitting in the car with him and missing everything, I took my half naked, red swollen face boy into the party for the last little bit.

The next day we were at Costco and Olivia saw a tinkerbell costume and informed me that is what she was going to be for Halloween. I don't even know how she knew who tinkerbell was. I was still bound and determined to force them in the chicken costumes until my friend Michelle gave me a reality check. She said, "Halloween is for them, let her be tinkerbell if she wants and I even have a little peter pan costume if you want it for Aidan." So as you can see from the picture they went as tinkerbell and peter pan and couldn't have been more excited. Olivia informed everyone she was a princess and Aidan was just happy to have a sword. They had to hand pick every piece of candy from everyones bowl and they gave back their toothbrushes to the dentist in our neighborhood and said, "no thank-you". It was the most gorgeous night. We trick or treated in shorts and t-shirts. The kids were hot in their costumes. Everybody's door was open and a lot of people just sat out on their porch handing out candy. This is one of the many things I have grown to love down here.